SSMS Complains of "Inconsistent Line Endings" with PowerShell Output

calendar Apr 13, 2017  · Updated: November 3, 2025 · 1 min read  ·
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If you've used Out-File, Set-Content or Add-Content to create a SQL file, you may notice that SQL Server Management Studio complains about normalizing the line breaks.

If you see this, simply using -Encoding UTF8 for your output instead of ASCII, the default, will solve the problem.

Update (2025): Newer PowerShell (7+) defaults to UTF-8 for many file cmdlets, which reduces these warnings. If you still encounter the prompt in SSMS, explicitly specifying -Encoding UTF8 (or setting a default via $PSDefaultParameterValues['Out-File:Encoding']='utf8') remains a reliable fix. The warning itself is about mixed line endings (LF vs. CRLF); ensuring your file is written on Windows with CRLF line endings and a consistent encoding will prevent it.